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Eve Gravel is a Montreal fashion designer whose dresses are worn by such singer-songwriters as Coeur de pirate, Ariane Moffatt and singer Norah Jones. Dynamic and creative, her eye for texture and colour goes beyond designing fashionable clothes. When she and her partner, percussionist and record producer Jean-Philippe "Jean-Phi" Goncalves found their third-floor Plateau co-prop in 2010, Eve knew she could give her imagination full rein.

What was it that particularly appealed to you about this apartment?

It's long and narrow and we've got only one bedroom, but I could see its potential. The building was constructed around 1910, so the textures and the raw materials were all there - rough brick walls, wood trim around the windows and doors, hardwood floors. ... The outside of the building has lots of heritage detailing as well. The previous owner had obviously taken good care of it.

It sounds as if you didn't have to do any renovating.

Not much. The living-dining area and the kitchen had already been opened up, but we did shave a little off a wall in the living room, to make it look even more spacious. One of our friends, Jean-François Ethier, who happens to be a cabinetmaker, removed the old ceiling beam, sawed it up and made it into a TV stand. We also painted this particular brick wall white. Because the walls on the opposite side of the room were also brick, it made the living area a bit too gloomy.

Jean-François helped us to redo the kitchen as well. The cupboards were all dark wood, the fridge was in the corner, there was very little counter space and the layout wasn't very practical. We lightened everything up by installing Ikea cabinets but we made them look a little different from the ones everybody else has, because we added black antique metal handles. I like mixing and matching the old and the new, and Jean-François is very open to my ideas.

What about the butcher block countertop?

We added that as well. It's wide enough to seat a couple of people and others can sit around the dining table. Because the space is quite narrow (the table is squeezed between the counter and an L-shaped corner), we came up with a space-saving banquette instead of chairs. The top opens up, so we can store things underneath. Jean-Phi and I love to take an apéro with friends. They can sit here, I can prepare food and we can chat at the same time.

What on earth is the dining table leg made from?

(Laughs.) It's part of a transmission unit for a Jeep Cherokee. We found it in a scrap yard! I love going into those places and saying, "I'd like the top of this or that object" because in my mind's eye, I can see how I might use it in a different way.

(As we wander around, Gravel shows me various cannibalized and repurposed furnishings that she has incorporated into the apartment. The coffee table, which sits atop a brown and white cowhide instead of a rug, is an old-fashioned flatbed cart with metal wheels. Twin chairs in the hallway came from the waiting room of a railway station and rough wooden butter boxes affixed to the wall serve as bookshelves. Underneath sits an old wooden suitcase and a steamer trunk.)

I've been collecting butter boxes for a long time, but it isn't always easy to find ones that are the same size. These boxes match, but they were pretty dirty. It took me two days to clean them!

(We walk into her bedroom where she shows me her sliding closet doors. They're made of seasoned barn wood.)

The old doors were plastic, so we replaced them with these planks. We just covered them with a light wash of white, because I wanted to highlight their texture and let some of the original wood show through. The inside fittings - again they're from Ikea, but they were here already - are very practical. They store lots of our clothes, but unless you open the doors, you would think this was an old cupboard.

SHELTER

Shelter is a weekly series featuring a conversation with tenants or condo owners.

Tenants: Eve Gravel, 33, and Jean-Philippe Goncalves, 34

Location: Plateau

Been there since: 2010

Purchase Price: $330,000

Size: 1,000 sq. feet (one-bedroom) on the top storey of a tri-level co-prop, with two balconies

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